Studies on Hamsters...

[ghost]

The hamster has a sticky eye

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"The hamster cannot open his left eye," Ms Hamzah said. "Some sticky thing had glued his eyelids. Is he blind?"

The Golden hamster was busy rubbing his left cheek back and forth and his continuous scratching of the cheek had caused some hair loss in that area. He was irritated by some itchiness in that swollen left cheek.

"What is the problem with my hamster and is there a cure for his big swollen cheek?" Ms Hamzah enquired.

I held the hamster by the skin on his neck to have a closer look. He was very energetic and did not like me to hold him.

"It is common to have sticky pus in a sick hamster," I replied. "In this case, there must be a bacterial infection in his left cheek pouch which holds and stores all his seeds and food."

"Could durian cause this problem as he loves durians," Ms Hamzah asked. "Eating too much durian can cause heatiness and sore throat." It is a local Singaporean belief that too much eating of the durian, a strong smelly fruit with spikes would lead to sore throat and loss of voice. In this hamster's case, Ms Hamzah believed that would cause a sore eye.

I did not believe it till I had suffered from sore throat one time when I ate durians for several days. I just lost my voice and therefore am a believer in the heatiness concept of excessive ingestion of too much of a good thing.

As for durians causing this hamster's condition, I did not agree that this was possible. But there are always new incidents to discover.

Now, what should I do with this hamster?

"A soft swollen left cheek indicated it was infected with pus," I explained to Ms Hamzah.

"What is pus? How did it happen?" Ms Hamzah asked.

"Pus is the sticky yellowish discharge formed as a result of the body's white blood cells fighting against bacterial infection. It is usually yellowish in colour like those in face pimples." I said. "In this hamster, he could be bitten by the other hamster as there seemed to be a wound in his cheek."


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The hamster could smell a different environment and was restless. It would be best to examine him under gas anaesthesia as too much handling might stressed him and he might just die of heart attack.

A light anaesthesia should not kill him. There was no other way to open his mouth to examine his cheek pouch. I put him into the gas container for less than 60 seconds. Once he was not so fidgety, I took him out to check his mouth.

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Was there a necessity to incise the skin of this swollen cheek pouch and release the pus while the hamster was under anaesthesia and not suffering from pain? This would be the standard procedure.

I looked at the limp body. A small blob of greenish yellow pus oozed out from inside his mouth. In this case, the abscess had burst on the inside surface of the cheek pouch and therefore I needed not do any incision on the outside skin of the cheek pouch.

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This was the advantage of anaesthesia which immobilised the hamster to enable me to examine the hamster properly. The hamster must have tried to get rid of the pus with his hands and in the process, had rubbed the pus onto his left eye lids, sticking them together. He felt more irritated but could do nothing. He stopped eating and would have died of starvation and infection.

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I massaged his left cheek pouch to express out more pus. The pouch was deflated soon. I swabbed off the sticky pus of his left eyelids and his black protruding eye was not infected. He could see clearly now.

It was kind of his owner to bring the hamster for treatment early. Under anaesthesia, I could see that the hamster had overgrown front teeth. The front teeth grows daily unlike human teeth and they have overgrown because the hamster was not using them to chew his seeds for some time. The infected cheek pouch would be painful for him to eat well.

What should I do with his overgrown teeth?

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I used a clipper and trimmed them short. He should be able to eat normallynow. The hamster recovered from anaesthesia quickly. He was given antibiotic injection and a bottle of eye drops. As to why he got his left cheek pouch infected, I could only guess that he was bitten by the other hamster as there was a skin wound but this scab could be due to his pawing at the painful cheek. A sharp seed could have penetrated his pouch lining and bacteria colonised the cheek pouch forming pus when the immune system's white blood cells attack them.

Nobody knows the cause but Ms Hamzah was happy that her hamster survived the cheek pouch infections in time to celebrate Hari Raya Puasa.

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[ghost]

The hamster had an eating binge?

"I have a 2-year-old hamster with a large swelling under the neck after he had been boarded with a friend for three weeks while I was on holiday," said Mrs Mazlan over the phone. "What shall I do?"

"I don't know. I have not examined the hamster and am unable to advise you over the phone," I said. I dislike phone consultations but these are part and parcel of every service provider. If the advice given is wrong, the animal may die and the vet gets cursed.

"It is extremely difficult to diagnose over the telephone." I said. "It is best to see your veterinarian. One of the common conditions will be an abscess which is a skin swelling with lots of pus. Is it a hard or soft swelling"

"It is a soft swelling and is very big." said Mrs Mazlan. It does sound like an abscess if it is soft. An abscess under the neck could be caused by this hamster being bitten by another hamster while being looked after by a friend, I thought.

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"As the hamster has not been eating much and it is nearing the end of its life span, any anaesthesia to remove the pus from the abscess will be risky," I advised. "It may just die during or after anaesthesia. Do you want to wait a few days to see if the lump will reduce?" This risk is great and must be communicated to the owner to prevent misunderstanding. The hamster did have a swelling in its tummy sometime ago and it had burst and the hamster was back to normal.

Mrs Mazlan thought hamsters do live longer than two years. This hamster would be around fifty human equivalent years old. It looked fit. The swelling was unbelievably big, as big as its head. It was not soft at all but it was not hard as a rock. It was so big that it hung down, as if it was a neck swelling. It was more a cheek pouch swelling weighed down by its size onto the neck area and therefore Mrs Mazlan said it was a neck swelling.

The hamster's natural behaviour is to stuff as much food as possible into its cheek pouches and then store them in a corner of the cage. Some do stuff the wood shavings used as bedding too.

Sunflower seeds are a common part of the hamster's feed all over the world and this hamster could have stored more than normal as it might be feeling insecure in a new surrounding away from Mrs Mazlan and her three lovely daughters.

Some sharp food might have punctured the pouch lining and caused an infection which developed into a large mass of over 4 cm long in three weeks.

Besides storing food, the hamster can puff up its cheek pouches to a large swelling to frighten off enemies. In this case, it was definitely a big bean-shaped lump inside the left cheek pouch. A lump which had developed during the boarding period. It was living alone and therefore could not be bitten by another hamster but Mrs Mazlan was not sure about this. What was this lobulated dark red lump which looked like a tumour known as a haemangiosarcoma? Was it a haematoma or blood clot? Was it a blood-related tumour? One daughter had seen some bleeding from inside the mouth but she told me that after the surgery.


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The hamster was put under gas anaesthesia inside a container packed with cotton wool and anaesthetic. I needed a sufficient amount of pain relief to remove the lump and stitch up the skin incision. It must not be too much such that the hamster's heart stopped beating. It must not be insufficient that the hamster woke up in the middle of stitching or removal of the large mass.

After 2 minutes of sniffing the anaesthesia, I took out the Syrian hamster and placed it on the table for surgery. It looked dead and lifeless. It was difficult to see whether its eye pupils were dilated as it had small eyes. The eyes popped out and therefore it was not easy to check the blink effect which could be done in a dog under anaesthesia. If the eyes blinked when the eyelids are touched, the anaesthesia is light. If the eye pupils are dilated, the anaesthesia is very deep. If its chest moves, it is still alive and breathing. If the tongue is purplish, there is a danger of death from lack of oxygen. None of this could be easily observed in a small hamster.

Was it dead? A dead hamster always sully a veterinarian's reputation no matter how informed clients had been. The youngest daughter, around ten years old cried as she saw the limp body from outside the operating room. It was best not to observe the surgery, so I asked them to go somewhere. My reputation was on the line.

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I incise the skin with a scalpel expecting thick cheesy pus to come out as I expected an abscess. The operation should be done in less than 60 minutes as the hamster was under minimal anaesthesia.

However, there appeared a glistening membrane covering this reddish lump like a capsule. There were two large "veins" attached to two poles of the bean shaped lump. I clamped the "veins" although they would not be real blood vessels.

The lump was shelled out from the skin. The incision was more than 2 cm and I quickly stitched the big wound using the hair-like suture 5/0. I used fine sutures so that the hamster would not feel it, I hoped.

I expect the hamster would groom excessively to remove the stitches if fine ones are not used. There was a lot of bleeding. The lump had a jelly-like golden yellow core when I cut it. This lump was a haematoma or a blood tumour. . One of the big veins must have been punctured by the sharp seeds as this hamster had a habit of over-stuffing its pouch. It could have stuffed more when it was insecure in a strange place for three weeks. This was human speculation. Do hamsters feel insecure like people?

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I gave it an antibiotic dextrose injection as I don't expect it to take oral medication so well. The hamster survived for the next twenty four hours. The next seven days would be important. If it survives, it will lead a new lease of life much loved by the three sisters and not be fed any sharp seeds.

This case showed that the telephone diagnosis was not satisfactory as the "big and soft neck" swelling was gigantic relative to the hamster's weight and it was not soft. Over the phone, I thought it was an abscess. In reality, it was a large cheek pouch haematoma or tumour. The hamster was still strong enough to undergo anaesthesia and therefore its chances of survival are excellent.


If there was a wait of another two weeks, it would be very weak to take the anaesthesia.

The big lump on the cheek pouch recurred a few weeks later, indicating that this was a tumour. The owner did not bring the hamster for further examination. As the hamster was old, the tumour of the cheek pouch would have developed. The average hamster lives 18 - 24 months and this hamster was nearing 24 months of age and could be considered old.

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[ghost]

The hamster bleeds from the mouth

Her left eyelids were glued together by a sticky yellowish mass and a big cheek lump on the left face tilted her head towards the left as she stumbled with the heavy load. She was 12 months old and that would be past middle-aged for this Golden hamster as the average life span is 18 - 24 months.

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"I saw blood coming out of her mouth," Mrs Chan said as she placed the hamster onto the examination table. "What is the problem with her?"

"It is most likely an abscess," I said as I touched the swelling. Yet it was a hard fibrous lump. I did not want to stress the hamster by handling her as she looked as if she was going to die any time. Lethargic, not eating for a few days. This was not the ideal patient for surgery. Yet she needed surgical removal of the lump which looked more like a tumour than an abscess. If it was an abscess, incising the swelling would release the pus and the hamster would be able to eat. But this was a tumour impacted with feed accumulated by the hamster over the past few days. There was yellowish pus in some soft areas.

In short, this was an infected and impacted cheek pouch tumour in a weak hamster which would be dying of sepsis and infection in the next 2 days.

If no operation was done, the hamster would die as she could not eat properly even though she might be given antibiotics to eliminate the bacterial infections in the pouch and blood.

If surgery was done, she would need to be anaesthesized and she might die on the operating table.

Some owners would not be happy to pay sixty dollars to receive a dead pet at the end of the procedure. Sixty dollars could buy three or four young hamsters if the owner was pragmatic and calculating and I would not know the reaction of Mrs Chan who was a first-time client.


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"You know that there is a risk of your hamster dying if I operate as she is very weak and her heart might fail under anaesthesia or the next 24 hours?" I asked Mrs Chan. Informed consent is nowadays a necessary procedure. Usually there would be a form to acknowledge awareness of this risk.

"Is there another choice?" Mrs Chan asked. There was no other method of treatment as this mass was hard and was likely a tumour.

Mrs Chan decided on the surgery. I put the hamster under gas anaesthesia, just sufficiently deep to operate without her feeling the pain. Of course, there was no monitoring equipment like pulse meter, heart rate meter, breathing meters and all sorts of supporting equipment as in human anaesthesia.

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In hamsters, the shorter the anaesthesia and the faster the surgery, the chances of survival post-operation are very good. The tumour could be seen from inside the mouth once the hamster was under anaesthesia. I use the scalpel to incise the left cheek slowly. There was the membrane of the cheek pouch. Slowly, the scissors were used to spread open the skin from the membrane of the cheek pouch. The ball of tumour was then removed.

The hamster gripped the scissors as the anesthetic wore off. She was put back into the anaesthetic chamber for a short time as the gaping wound in the cheek needed to be stitched up to promote healing.

So far, so good. It was observation on the hamster's reaction to stitching to tell how long the hamster would remain anaesthesized. The hamster objected weakly to the fine needle entering her skin from one side of the wound to the other side. That would be just sufficient anaesthesia.


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Fine hair-like stitches would be placed to close up the wound. Stitches that would dissolve by themselves after 14 days when the wound edges would have healed. Would the hamster survive the anaesthesia? She woke up fast but was groggy as she staggered on the operating table after the last of the four stitches were tied.

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The next 24 hours would be important. Mrs Chan had to keep the hamster in a quiet warm place and let her sleep. It was daytime and hamsters, being nocturnal animals, should be sleeping. I hope she would lead a normal life and that the tumour would not recur. Singapore's hamster owners seldom re-visit the veterinarian to review the condition and therefore the fate of this hamster would usually not be known

[ghost]

Saving for a rainy day.

"My one-month hamster is not walking properly, as if he is in pain or lame," said Miss Chan, a slim and fair girl.

Like almost all teenagers, she was as careful of her weight and was in fashion, wearing a white blouse exposing the belly button, the fashion of the year.

She took out a small shoe box full of shredded newspaper from her large paper shopping bag. A baby hamster emerged.

There is a big lump below its neck," continued Mrs Chan, the mother, short haired and wearing the blouse and snacks, as conservative in her dressing as her daughter is modern.

The baby hamster had stuffed seeds in the left pouch, making it a large 1 cm irregular mass.

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"Has it been eating its food?" Dr Foo asked. A piece of normal faeces was passed. The hamster certainly looked and behaved normally.

"She has an excellent appetite but she staggers, as if she is drunk," commented Mrs Chan.

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"The mass would be the seeds stored in the pouch," said Dr Foo.

"Do you have an injection to get the seeds out? They seem to cause a difficulty in walking, as if she was carrying a heavy baggage," asked Mrs Chan.

It would be best to leave the baby hamster alone and stop offering any food to her for a short time.

But which owner would want to do that? The baby could be starved to death.

What if the baby got choked since the mass was so big relative to the size of the hamster?

Would Dr Foo be negligent in not dealing with the "choke"?

This wasn't a real choke, well known in cattle cases in Scotland in the 1970s.

In some cows in Scotland, a very big potato swallowed could block the gullet, Dr Foo remembered his seeing practice days.

In this baby hamster, the gullet was not obstructed but this mass could block food going down the gullet from pressure to constrict the oesophagus.
"No such injection is needed. Anyway, it is too risky to inject such a young baby. It may be possible to massage the lump out," said the vet.

Was this a very hungry baby hamster? Certainly, she would not be short of food from her caring owners.

The eyeballs popped out as Dr Foo tried to massage the seeds out of the mouth.

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3 big seeds of about 0.4 cm long were extruded. Some broken down masticated greenish black material too.

The blackish stuff could be the ink as she could have sampled the Straits Times newspapers too as she was kept on a litter of newspapers.


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The hamster was not very happy. She stopped struggling for a while and her body was limp.

"Is she dead?" asked Mrs Chan. Tears welled up in the eyes of her daughter. The baby was only one month old and life had just begun.

The whole process of manipulating the seeds out might have stimulated the neck vagal nerves next to the big lump and lead to the slowing down of the heart?

The baby hamster got up as if she has woken up from a nightmare. She was wobbly but was all right.

"No more big seeds for this baby," said Dr Foo. "She could be just putting everything in her pouch, as all one-year old (human) toddlers would put all things in their mouth. Most likely the baby hamster was saving for a rainy day!"

[animosity]

is this a singaporean vet? and where?

[ghost]

I've just unlock this thread...& yes...this is a s'pore vet....it belongs to S'pore Veterinary....& i think it's use to teach young vets to handle certain type of pets that they may encounter in S'pore....it's also make for young Vet's reference as well.....

Pls note all extra posts will be deleted off from this section soon as i'm intending to keep this thread for my own reference on my hamster illness studies....It will be a "read-only" thread....

[animosity]

can gimme teh webbie? interesting read tho

didnt thought spore vets would even gas chamber hams... got the impression always give pred and baytril can liao...

[ghost]

Oops,wait a min....i'm finding the link now....& my mistakes...the site is from The S'pore Veterinary Association...

[Leoric]

This is really something unique.Very informative about operating on a hamster.Very detail too.And i can't seems to find it in any webbie.Well-done,ghost.You must have found found it while looking for a cure for BaoBao,right?

[ghost]

Ya...i happen to chance upon that url when i'm searching for cures for BaoBao...i've IM animosity the link liao....i think it's an given-up URL & i just use it for the forum use....& i'm intending to add this into part of my studies on hamsters health,illness & behaviours....